I had hunted turkeys for about 3 consecutive springs in the same spot near Snow Shoe. Always found them where we knew they'd be. Never harvested one, but enjoyed a few brief conversations. Two years ago they put a pad a couple hundred yards from this spot; the turkeys don't hang around there anymore. Circumstantial, yes, but I'm comfortable in saying that the well site had an effect.

This doesn't pertain to hunting necessarily, but I've also smelled pungent odors associated with drilling activity (gas, oil, diesel, whatever) up to a mile downwind of a site. If it burns my nostrils, how does it affect the fauna in the area?

I think that some of allegations against the gas drilling phenomenon are overblown, but most are legit. IMO, it's too much too soon.

I've been around lots of right of ways, pads, and impounds. I know it's disheartening to see beautiful land to be forever changed but it is what it is. That aspect affects me too, however, those birds are still there, keep calling and I hope you get one.

Posted on: 2012/10/10 19:29

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When I grow up I want to be, one of the harvesters of the sea. I think before my days are done, I want to be a fisherman."I'll live and die a fisherman."

No, the birds are not gone forever, but they're not in the same location. Their habits have changed due to the drilling activity. The question was whether or not it affected my hunting, and it has. Yeah, animals are attracted to edge habitat, I get that. But not the edge of a pad site where there's all kinds of machinery and people bustling about, not during the daylight...

I understand that pilfering the land is a necessary evil to exist as the society we are. This continent has been stripped and stripped again and it will continue to be, that's the way it is. But we're smart enough now and should learn from past mistakes...

Sorry dont really care about the turkeys but i will tell you what happens to the people that are not signed just as soon as my neighbors start getting there checks( I am the Last person standing not signed)The well is being drilled as we speak.

"how can advocates of drilling right away, including at least one politician who represents me, say that hydrofracking has been safely practiced for 60 years?

Perhaps the confusion comes because a kind of hydraulic fracturing using nitroglycerin to enhance production in oil wells was done as far back as the 1860s.

Or maybe the people who keep telling us hydrofracking has been safely done for 60 years old date its birth to 1947, when Stanolind Oil and Gas experimented with it in a gas field in Kansas. Two years later, Haliburton Oil Well Cementing Company applied for and received a patent for a “hydrafrac” process they used in Texas and Oklahoma.

But is this really the kind of hydrofracking we are talking about now? I don’t think so. Early wells were a few hundred feet deep. The fracking fluid consisted of gelled crude oil and kerosene. The sand used to hold the fractures open came from the river, and the quantities of all these materials was small — about 750 gallons of fluid and 400 pounds of sand.

Today, an average well is 5,300 feet deep. Drilling takes between 65,000 and 600,000 gallons of water, and the fracking done afterward uses an average of 4.5 million gallons of fluid and hundreds of thousands of pounds of sand. No more nitroglycerin, kerosene and crude oil, thank goodness, but equally scary substances like benzene, toluene and xylene have replaced them."

irish - those are some interesting numbers. Trying to compare what was done in the fracking industry 60 years ago to what is done today seems like a ridiculous way to justify things. Hopefully the money we're all saving on our natural gas bills and the jobs created by the industry will somehow warrant the damage done.

Posted on: 2012/11/13 22:29

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They say if you ain't born beautifulYou best be resourceful-JTC

warrent the damage done? like poisoning human beings? by amending the Safe Drinking Water Act? YOU MIGHT WANT TO PAY A LITTLE MORE FOR NATURAL GAS AND HAVE SAFE DRINKING WATER FOR YOUR FAMILY? (APPERENTLY THIS ISSUE DOES NOT AFFECT YOU PERSONNALLY BERKS)

ENERGY POLICY ACT OF 2005

SEC. 322. HYDRAULIC FRACTURING. Paragraph (1) of section 1421(d) of the Safe Drinking Water Act (42 U.S.C. 300h(d)) is amended to read as follows: ‘‘(1) UNDERGROUND INJECTION.—The term ‘underground injection’— ‘‘(A) means the subsurface emplacement of fluids by well injection; and ‘‘(B) excludes—‘‘(i) the underground injection of natural gas for purposes of storage; and‘‘(ii) the underground injection of fluids or propping agents (other than diesel fuels) pursuant to hydraulic fracturing operations related to oil, gas, or geothermal production activities.’’.

"The frack pit at this eight gas well location, Cowden #6, 7, 9, 10, 11 12, 15, & 16, along with two frack pits at the nearby Cowden #17 gas well location, had been the source of nauseating fumes all week.

The chemical / hydrocarbon odors were so bad that a neighbor phoned a complaint into the Pennsylvania DEP three days prior to this fire, voicing health concerns for their children and themselves, having had to breath these pit fumes for several days. What health effects could it have on them? The fumes were actually bad enough for them to evacuate their home. In addition to the sickening fumes, a hydrocarbon sheen was clearly visible on the surface of the two closer frac pits at Cowden #17, indicating the presence of VOC's and a strong potential for explosive vapors.

Following combustion of the frac pit at the 8-well location, the heat from the fire was so intense that it burned the pit liner, allowing contaminated pit fluids to seep into surrounding soil."

That #8 well flow back was definitely a problem and Atlas was cited for that issue. The fire did melt the top edge of the pit liner but only a very small amount of the pit contents spilled out one corner. The fire went out when it reached the water level in the pit. Nothing got into a stream or groundwater. All soils pulled up and disposed of. No long term or near term affects for that matter. The fire was the result of a companies inability or miscalculation on how to separate the large amounts of condensate that the well produced. Also, a light plant was to close to the pit which ignited the condensate vapors coming off of the pit. Some companies were caught unprepared for the large amounts of condensate found in this particular area of the Marcellus shale. New methods and protocols were put in place to keep from happening again.

Gudgeonville wrote:That #8 well flow back was definitely a problem and Atlas was cited for that issue. The fire did melt the top edge of the pit liner but only a very small amount of the pit contents spilled out one corner. The fire went out when it reached the water level in the pit. Nothing got into a stream or groundwater. All soils pulled up and disposed of. No long term or near term affects for that matter. The fire was the result of a companies inability or miscalculation on how to separate the large amounts of condensate that the well produced. Also, a light plant was to close to the pit which ignited the condensate vapors coming off of the pit. Some companies were caught unprepared for the large amounts of condensate found in this particular area of the Marcellus shale. New methods and protocols were put in place to keep from happening again.

SO what I get from that is......The gas companies rushed to do something and were not prepared for what they encountered. Its ok though, because you say it won't happen again.

Posted on: 2012/11/15 10:35

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“My mom is being eaten by a dog and there’s nothing I can do!”

Gas and oil well drilling still has some uncertainties. You and I cannot see how much gas or oil will flow out of a well. Have you never seen a video of a gusher? It happens all the time. Generally the company over designs for these types of incidences. Mine does. The company was fined for it. No damage done. The industry learned something more about a specific area and we haven't seen this incident since. There are no guarantees in life sir.